Icom wins Chuck Husick Technology Award

Jan 6, 2015

by John Snyder

The Chuck Husick Marine Technology Award nomination process is always a great snapshot of the state of marine technology for voyagers. The mix of products nominated by our judges this year makes for intriguing reading. We had everything from satellite communications, to apps, to a spinnaker furler.

That’s right, one of our judges, Paul Exner, nominated Delrin 527UV. He made the case this way: “Although this product has been available for use for a few years, it is still worth nominating because of the range of new system applications where it can be used: mounting winches on an aluminum mast as an insulating spacer to prevent corrosion, custom mounting of other equipment like solar panels, etc. A material that has a high surface hardness, good machining specs and improved UV stability over its Dupont predecessor Delrin 507.” Pretty amazing stuff, Delrin!

An Icom VHF radio that handles AIS duties too was voted the top award winner this year by our judges.

Even though all the nominated products are winners for being included, one product still needed to garner top honors. And after the judges cast their votes, we had a winner.

On Friday, Oct. 10, at the Ocean Navigator booth at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, the 2014 Chuck Husick Marine Technology Award was presented to Icom for its IC-M506 VHF/AIS transceiver. The M506 has an integrated AIS receiver and can show AIS vessel traffic information on the display. The AIS target call function allows you to easily set up an individual DSC call. The Plotter, Target list and Danger list can be toggled on the display. The M506 also has last-call recording, active noise canceling and a 25W hailer capability.